Genealogy Chat

Hi everyone.

I'm doing an art project on my family and ancestry, and as part of it I am collecting a photograph of all my relatives. I'm going to try to go as far back as I possibly can, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas as to how I could obtain photographs of family members from over 100 years back. I have managed to collect family photographs etc, but was wondering if anyone could think of where I should be looking.

Thanks guys and gals.

well all the ones I have of my family going back well over a hundred years have come from within the family =- have you been around all your relatives?

I've googled variations of words...example "surname, occupation, place of birth, year born, spouse's name", etc.

One of the times I googled, I found a passage written about the ancestor that included a drawing of him! I don't remember the date, but I believe he was born 1771.

Don't give up on family members. Continue to ask. I've researched for quite a long time and just a few years ago my aunt visited and brought with her quite a few family photos, including one she obtained from her cousin...it was taken c1871 and was of my brickwall ancestor!

Yes, I have begun asking relatives, from which I have managed to pretty much solidly go back about 3 generations... I will see how it goes. Thanks for your advice.

Newspapers - ask at the local newspaper offices and library, they might have articles about your families weddings. If you have the dates very often the papers can be viewed.
Trade directories often included adverts, I am lucky that my ancestors spent a bit of money on advertising and I have an handfull from the 1800's
Failing anything else you might have to settle for a photo of a place where they lived or the church where they were baptised.
good luck

James--keep asking family members for details of photographs,where they went-who's got them?
I've just discovered that my 1st cousin has a whole stack of old family photos in her attic that she is not at all interested in --can't wait to get my hands on them!

And when you do get photos, make sure you scan them (and keep a backup).

brilliant,thank you everyone for your advice

x

there is a local website on my village and there are family in some of the photographs on there

If the family tended to stay in the same town/village look to see if there is a family history group there. If there is they are a mine of info as they usually have a collection of old pics that people loan them to copy. Also some members of these type of groups write books relating to the place and include pics. Also go to the relevant County Records Office . Some CRO's have an on line search catalogue where you can input family names and some have photos donated.